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JLP’s Question of the Day
By JLP | June 8, 2006
It’s summertime and most families will be taking a vacation, which leads me to today’s Question of the Day:
Of course, your budget probably depends on where you want to go on vacation. If you are planning a trip to Disney World, then you will need to budget more than if you are taking a trip to see the grandparents. This year, we are doing the latter. When the baby gets a bit older we’ll head to Disney World.
Topics: Question of the Day | 6 Comments »
June 8th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Trip to the grandparents too … with daily “fun” trips. The budget will be faily small for a vacation (approx. $500) since we will be staying at their house and are getting some good deals on the things we plan on doing.
June 8th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Because of all my business travel, I accumulate plenty of airline miles and hotel points, so if we limit our trip & stay to whatever options are available (which are relatively plentiful if planned ahead), our cost on these items is around $0. Last year all four of us flew to Japan for 2 weeks, stayed in a Hilton, and paid nothing for all this. But Japan is the most expensive country on earth, so we almost made up the difference just by being there for 14 days. (Examples: $40 in highway tolls for a 40 minute ride; $80 overnight hotel self-parking, and many more.)
On the other hand, this summer we made a last minute decision for an international getaway, and it will cost us quite a bit.
So to answer your question, it’s a tough item to budget for me. I put in around $3k per year, but in reality we are spending in the multiples of this amount when you factor in the airline and hotel rewards. But this summer’s last minute decision will definitely blow through our budget on its own merits.
So I have a budget, but it’s really not a good benchmark when it comes to a number of items, also including clothing, food, and some other discretionary items. I guess the logic behind the budget in these categories is that “if we really tried or had to, we could spend this much only.” Makes it harder to predict cash flow, if this is important to you.
June 8th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
Being young and stupid, I don’t budget for vacation. A few months before, I will just divert money towards other sources and save what I need to save for the trip. I will be honest though, none of my trips are major items like Disney World or Ireland.
June 8th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
I have money set aside for a trip, it is just a matter of deciding where we will go, and now when we will go. We have a few other things going on the career side of life that may take precedence.
Long run, this is a good thing, so we can wait until later if necessary.
Already went on a small vacation in anticipation of this, so if we don’t go, we have had some time off and away.
June 8th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
This year is pretty unique for us in that we have three big weddings to budget for, along with one vacation. The first wedding is one of my wife’s best friends, and it actually combines the vacation with one of the weddings. Since it’s in Florida, we’re going to stay down there for 5 days. Then, two weeks after we get back, my cousin, who we are close with, is getting married. And finally a couple months later, my brother is getting married. That’s the big one, since my wife and son are in the wedding, and I’m the best man. Normally, we put aside $200-$300 per month for vacations, but this year most will go toward the weddings. Because of who is getting hitched this year, the gifts will be bigger than normal for a wedding, plus I’ll be throwing a bachelor party for my brother, and my wife will be planning out the shower and party for his fiance. We’ve planned a few inexpensive day trips throughout the summer to keep us busy.
June 8th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Like Vlad, we will be using hotel points for the towns we’ll drive thru on the way to/from Florida. In Fl, we’re fortunate to have the use of my in-law’s condo. At the end of our stay, we’ll spend 2 days at WD World, using points for that hotel. I have $3000 earmarked for food, gas, Disney, etc. for a 15-day trip. Of course, we’ll have a cooler full of snacks for the drive, and we’ll be eating 2 out of 3 meals at the condo. So I think $3000 s/b more than enough. I always “run” my Microsoft Money detail for a year in advance, so the trip will be initially funded by AMEX or Discover, then paid off with current cash flow–I won’t be tapping our ING savings! Another helpful tip: go to restaurant.com, enter the zip codes you’ll be in on vacation, and you can easily save $20 or so (deal varies by restaurant) on your dinners!